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all round excellent quality phone

The C905 was the first Sony Ericsson phone to break the 8 megapixel camera barrier, and quiet possibly still has one of the best cameras around. All the new smart phones barely reach 5 megapixels; it also contains a powerful xenon flash.As a CyberShot phone, Sony Ericsson have borrowed technology from their range of market leading digital cameras. The camera on this phone has autofocus with face detection, image stabiliser, red-eye reduction and it also contains Smart Contrast, which automatically balances light and it also contains BestPicTM, this will automatically take a series of 7 pictures, so that you can choose the best one.The phone also contains a Video camera (30 frames / second) with video stabiliser, video light and video calling.The phone also has assisted GPS, the GPS also has geo-tagging which basically enables you to tag where and when the picture was taken. As with some sony phones they are Walkman this one isn't, however you can play music in MP3 and AAC format and it will show you images of the album you are playing, the sound is of good quality aswell. The built-in memory isn't huge, at 160 Mbytes, but is adequate, and you can add a Memory Micro Stick to increase storage up to 8 GB. It also contains Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Text messaging and phone calling are pretty standard and easy to use.My only down side is that the speaker broke, which was apparently a common problem with this phone, which kind of defeats the object of ringing people, but it was fixed fairly quickly and after that it worked just fine.I would sooner have this phone over any smart phone, although you can't have apps, the camera and durability of this phone is perfect, it's just a shame mine was stolen.

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An excellent phone

This phone has excellent functionality, and is fairly practical to use for basic functions like texting and calls.

The camera is excellent, and at 8.1 megapixels, it is still top of the range for mobile phones. It produces well balanced photos in terms of contrast and colour, and the more recent versions even include intelligent focus finding and stitched panoramic photography. While compared to a compact camera there is the inevitable slight time lag to switch to camera mode and take the picture, it is fast for a mobile, and offers a good alternative to taking a separate camera out for nearly all occassions.

Likewise, the built in speaker produces excellent sound that remains equal to more recent products, and makes this a better choice for music that many of the Walkman phones.

In terms of day to day practicality, the number keys are buttons, though the layout is perhaps not quite as comfortable as a bar type phone. However, the large screen helps to compensate for this, especially for sending picture messages.

The longevity in my personal experience was ok, took a little over a year before the first problems cropped up, which were that the phone would not playback any sound through the earpiece speaker for phonecalls, and certain keys on the keypad became unresponsive. However, the second hand replacement (which is the newer version) has been working for several months without any problems at all.

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great cell phone, perfect pictures

This has been my pet for more than 2 years already and although he recently suffered from some "heart-attack" and all datas were unfortunately deleted (due to the system installed by the mobile provider), but I still consider it FANTASTIC. This cell phone makes better and much nicer pictures than my Olympus camera, althoug the zoom is weak. There are good possibilities for editing photos as well. I appreciated a lot the conversational form of keeping sms, possibility to add various sms and calling tones to every contact and lots of other details helping organising the contacts. As a disadvantage I would mention the weight - this cell phone does not belong to the lightest one and when the memory of my 2MB memory card got fuller, the cell phone became slower and slower. Unfortunately, it is not very resistant when it falls down. It it easy to use it, too.

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a good solid phone until the speaker broke

the sony ericsson c905 has a fantastic camera for a mobile phone of its time and price. the 8.1 mega pixel camera allowed me to use my phone as both my camera and phone. saving me money. it has an excellent built in flash allowing for pictures to be taken night and day. i found the phone very durable with it surviving a number of drops and scuffs. the slide feature is very stylish and smooth, the buttons are perhaps on the small side but dont make too much of a difference when trying to text. for the quality of the camera on the phone it could have been utilised further by putting a bigger and better screen on the phone to allow for the pictures to be viewed better. the sound quality when making or recieving a call is as expected, although as the phone became worn the top speaker broke.

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Fab durable trustworthy phone

Now I'm not that good with the ins-and-outs of mobile phones so I'm going to give you a general usage review.

DurabilityI had a samsung phone and my son got hold of it while I was cooking dinner and dribbled it (aparently that does count as water damage! lol) so my phone died completely and I was back on my old sony ericsson.

When my contract came up for renewal I phonad around all the companies to see what "very sturdy" phones they could recommend and what price plans. I got various suggestions and after lookingon the web I opted for the C905.

This phone is quite a heavy brick according to my other half, but I love it. I know if its not in my pocket (maybe cos I'm no longer leaning to that side! lol) and I feel as if I have something sturdy in my hand. I'm pretty rubbish at putting my phone out of reach and as a childminder I have a lot of children who can get hold of it. This phone however is so sturdy that I'm not worried.

The man at Vodafone (who my contract is with) assured me that I could drop this out of my upstairs window and it wouldn't break. Whilst starngely I have not tested this i was being a bit cocky when my hubby dropped his phone about 2 foot and the screen broke and he said mine would have as well. Unfortunately in all my maturity I took this as a bit of a dare and threw my phone from the living room over the stair gate and into the kitchen to land on the laminate floor and skid across to bad rather loudly into a cupboard. Whilst I admit this was rather silly the good news is the phone didn't have so much as a scuff mark on it!

The cameraIt does get occasional globe like spots on the picture if the lens is dirty but on the whole it takes great pictures with everything set as auto. It has shortcuts into the camera just by openeing the lens cover and is controlled by buttons on the side

CallsPhonebook is easily accessed via shortcuts and as with most phones you can type the name you want to find to get there quicker.

TextsThese can also be access via a shortcut, the predicitive text is good and as well as working out what word you are typing from the combo of buttons you have pressed it will also put in the word you use most from that combo. It also guesses which word you want to put next (I assume it has something in there to remember common phrases you might use) so if you always put see you soon you only have to put in see and space it will auto add the next word on. A bit like a search engine if you want it just press the right hand arrow if not just carry on typing. Great when I'm out with the kids so my eyes are all over the place but a parent texts to ask me something, means I can reply quickly while still focusing on the kids

BatteryAn important thing for me is battery life and how it shows its draining. My hubby's phone goes down to 3 bars then will suddenly die, I have to have something reliable that I can trust in case of emergencies while I'm out. This phone is great, seems to go down the bars evenly but will stay on red for ages before it dies.

GadgetsThis phone has loads of handy features, gadgets and gizmo's but don't ask me how to use them! I have occassionally used google maps and thats about it.

SoundI'm not much of a guru but my hubby is and he says it has good sound, and is loads better than his nokia N86 or his N95 was.

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A good and easy to use phone and once software was updated only had a few problems

I first owned the cybershot as it is more commenly know when it was first released in late 08 when I recieved the phone it was fantastic easy to use and navigate and the camera quality was outstanding the first phone I believe to be released with an 8.1 m/p camera. Unfortunatley I was one of many who had the microphone problem with my phone and this was prior to sony admitting there was a fault so unfortunatley for me i had to get the phone repaired via my insurance I was later advised it was only the first so many thousand handsets affected and was glad I didn't opt for an alternative replacement. The new handset complete with new software updates was better than the origional and did not break. I used this phone for 2 years and had only a few problems although the picture and video quality is great I did find the hatch covering the camera lens did have a tendancy to jam and not close properly or open in my bag. The phone did also have a tendancy to freeze mid application which meant you had to remove the battery to reset the phone. Also being a heavy texter I did find the keyboard on the phone could jam up after a while if the keys were pressed too much. Although I found the battery life on the phone resonably good could easily last a day and a half even with heavy usage so could rely on it as a sole camera for a day out. With a setting on the camera for multi picture simply point and click and the camera would take several images and simply pick the best. Even though I have mentioned a few faults for its time I thought it was by far the best handset I had especailly for camera quality and would recommend to anyone. Hope this review helps thanks

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good robust phone

This is a very good little phone and very very robust. I was using the upgraded version of this along side this one and this has outlived the newer version.My lifestyle is outdoor hiking in the wilderness and walking the dogs. This phone has withstanded bad weather, knocks and drops and still works well. Photos from this are brilliant, it has an 8.1 mega pixal camera which is better than my little digital camera and easier to just carry one item around. The GPS is brilliant on it and used a lot to check speeds and distances by using the probgram installed on it.The only problem I would say is the fact useful programs are not compatable with it, for example mapping programs and audible books programs. This is just the advancement of technology and the only reason I'm upgrading the an iPhone. However I will be keeping this phone and not selling it as it is very useful to keep and swap the sim into if I am going on a walk I know will be muddy and possible drops and knocks of phone due to it's robustness. Excellent phone and well worth having.

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Could have been fantastic

I first owned this phone several years ago upon it's initial release and loved it from the moment I received it....until it broke!....

My first impressions were that it's a nice size, 104 X49 X 18 mm to be exact - which is a nice size for a mobile -not too big that it won't fit into your pocket and not so small that you'll misplace it everytime you lay it down somewhere. It doesn't weigh too much neither - weighing in at 136g it's not a pain to carry around with you.

The look is stylish, with a sleek black and silver colour scheme being the most popular version and the screen being a nice and visible 2.4 inches with a smooth 240 X 320 pixel display.

On the front are numerous button which act for various different features (don't miss the two little buttons either side of the ear-piece!) - all of which glow with a mellow white/purple backlight. All the buttons (on the closed mode) function perfectly well and are a nice size to use, although you do sometimes find yourself using your nail to press them as opposed to your finger to avoid 'multi-button-tapping!'

Upon opening the phone with its slide-up front you are presented with the number keys and a few problems to boot. These buttons are very poorly produced and I know that this is a common problem with this phone as this is the reason why I had to send my original phone back and also why my current second C905 frustrates me!None of the number buttons work on a completely solo basis and the entire number pad is covered with one singleactivation area, which in turn causes problems if one area becomes weak, this affects the surrounding numbers also, so in time you are likely to have to push very sensitively or very hard on certain numbers to make them work, which becomes extremely frustrating when texting - especially if you are a speed-texter.

Turn the phone on it's sides and on the left you have the power supply area (which I will mention is very quick to charge in full) and also the memory card slot. (Memory Stick Micro)

On the flip-side is the camera controls (which works in turn with the slide cover on the back to reveal the camera lens and flash). These buttons and designed to make this feel like a normal camera as opposed to a mobile - and the buttons are positioned perfectly for this, allowing the user to take fantastic pictures with the outstanding 8.1 megapixel camera with a xenon flash and 16X digital zoon along with plenty of camera features including face detection and various shooting modes to satisfy the keen camera user.

Although when you view your images you may not feel overwhelmed with delight, when you upload these to a computer you will be suprised at the great quility that this camera produces pictures at.

The camera on this phone is without a doubt the stand-out feature and most likely the key selling point and with good reason - although it is let down by the video recording mode - only allowing 23 seconds of recording time at once and a quite poor quility in return.

In terms of using this as a phone, the sound is clear and loud enough for almost anyone and the speakerphone is reasonable.

The menus are reasonably easy to find your way through and there a the standard features you expect such as 'notes', calculator etc etc...

All in all this is a very good phone - but it could have been so much better if a little more time was spent producing better components for the general build.I think Sony relied on the camera to sell this product and that probably worked - but I have heard way too many sob stories about how this phone lets people down so I hope Sony learn from this in the future.

I would suggest people buy this phone but I would also suggest you to not expect it to last year after year as it seems this phone WILL let you down at some point.Here are some key product points:

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shop around

Got this phone on contract through O2 was really pleased to begin with it has been a good phone however just started to have a few problems.Has a brilliant camera, with a range of really handy settings to help you get just the right picture.3G - smart phone, lets you connect to the net where ever you may be.Music, Videos and games - the picture and sound quality is good and has a good capacity on memory so you can store alot of downloads on your phone.FM Radio - love this feature, i make good use of it and the phone is good at receiving signals even in somewhat remote areas.Really good stylish phone the only slight problem is the weight it is not a very light weight phone and i have recently started to have problems with sound during calls as such i can only hear the people on the other end if i have it on speaker phone setting not brilliant when your out in public having to shout to be heard.

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A very good phone at times but couldn't recommend due to problems. 2 stars.

The Sony Ericsson C905 was the mobile phone that I owned prior to the Nokia E72 (check my archive for that review) and it was the first contract or bill phone that I had ever signed up for. My review of the Sony Ericsson C905 will be a mixed bag. There were some absolutely great features on the phone but the trouble it gave me over a 9 to 10 month period was just crazy. It was such a shame because I became really attached to the phone itself. I have always tried to resist the temptations of the iPhone (although not anymore lol!) and my last three phones prior to the popular Apple device were Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. Unfortunately, I just don't think I could ever go back to a Sony Ericsson again after having this phone as it just wasn't reliable enough.

I signed up to the contract and got the phone for free and my contract was £40 a month for a period of 18m months with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. I thought this was a great deal as I don't make that many calls and I send a huge amount of texts. I trundled away delighted with my new phone and started to enjoy it!

The C905 is a slick, stylish handset with a slide mechanism that I have always liked on phones. This was one the reasons that I have always tried to avoid the iPhone - I prefer the slide mechanism on a phone with buttons as opposed to the touchscreen (although I am an iPhone convert now!) - and this mechanism, as an example, allows you to answer calls very easily. The phone also comes equipped with the then new 'Cyber-Shot' 8.1 megapixel camera with 16x digital zoom. The C905 was one of the first Sony phones to incorporate this technology onto a mobile phone camera and it was one of the most attractive features for me as I don't own a digital camera. I like to incorporate a camera into my phone and this seemed like an excellent way to do it!

The main screen is very user friendly and uses very recognisable symbols for each section (an envelope for text messages etc.) and is very easy to use. I always thought Nokia were the most user-friendly phones but this handset was right up there in this regard. I also used this phone as an mP3 player as this was way before I owned an iPod! Overall, this was an excellent handset with great features and a stylish look.

However, about two months into my contract, the speaker at the earpiece packed in completely. I was gobsmacked. The phone was only two months old and I had signed up for an 18 month contract. I sent it back to Sony Ericsson and they repaired it under warranty. It takes about a week to ten days to get your phone back but it could take longer if, for instance, you work full-time! I received a replacement phone while I was waiting which I thought was a nice touch (it wasn't the most modern of replacement phones but hey!) and I was re-assured that it was a common fault of the phone and it would come back fixed.

It was all ok then for roughly around 3 months and then the top buttons on the front the phone (the direction keys basically) wouldn't work. This was very, very frustrating (just ask my girlfriend who was present when it stopped working!!) Again, I got it sent off to Sony Ericsson and they fixed it....again!!

This happened a further two times in quick and I decided to get rid of the phone as my sanity couldn't take anymore. I was finding myself with a replacement phone for more time than I had the C905 and I didn't think that was right at all. Apparently, my phone company was aware of some of the handset faults and when I decided to actually change my phone, I don't think they were even still promoting it!!

I swiftly moved onto the E72 and I have never looked back.

The C905 was a really good handset with both an excellent camera and good features that are very easy to use.

I couldn't, however, recommend this handset to anyone due to the problems I have had and so many others appeared to have had. What a shame, because I loved the phone itself.

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There are better handphones out there. Do your homework.

I've been using SE C905 for a year now, and although I love the features on the phone, there have been too many heartaches in this short period of time. I might have to say my adieu soon.

- Positive - The SE C905's best feature will be its Cyber-Shot camera, which boasts an 8.1 MP, making it one of the highest resolution camera phone ever from SE. There are also quite a lot of features to support the Cyber-Shot camera such as Best Pic, Xenon flash etc. Other features (other than the basic handphone) include wi-fi, in flight mode, media and video player. I believe there are quite a number of websites that you are able to get more basic information and strengths of the phone. So I'll stop feeding unnecessary information now.

- Negative -However, there are a few key problems with the phone. Firstly, the ribbon inside the phone (which I believe connects the caller to the other party) spoils pretty easily. I had to send my handphone back for repair just after 6 months. Secondly, I have been having problem charging the handphone. The handphone keeps saying that the "battery is corrupted". Apparently, it is a common problem with C905 and the new SE handphone.

- Verdict - Too many heartaches for a handphone. Stick with the basic. Buy your own camera if you really want to take pictures.

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I owned this phone for 1 year now, it's still working and looking good!picture quality is superb for a phone! Can take good pictures at night too thanks to the xenon flash that comes with this phone. Video quality is still ok for me, one more thing that when recording the video u will get good quality audio! Good for travelling! sound quality is very good too..it's even better when u are using a good headset.The price for this phone is very cheap now. So far no problem with the phone. For those out there who likes to take picture, give this phone a try! worth the money!

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Good solid phone that does everything need in a non smart phone

Had this phone for 18 months and was very satisfied with it. It was fairly reliable apart from the speaker failing once ( a common fault). It eventually failed due to some accidental damage but this was no fault of the phone. I was actually given a Nokia X6 as a replacement but sold that straight away since I found this phone superior. The only major niggles I had were with Vodafone branding the phone and delying firmware updates.

Pros:8.1Megapixel camera takes excellent quality photos and the xenon flash means even night time photos look good.GPS with GoogleMaps.Good web browsing, especially if you install Opera to give full web page viewingNice choice of animated display background themes.FM radio usually gives good reception.Battery life, generally last around a day, although I am a heavy user.

Cons:The ear speaker on mine broke after around 9 months, however my brother who also had one had to replace his ear speaker 3 timesThe games included are all time limited demos only, but I find this with most phones today

Overall its an excellent phone, if Vodafone had offered me another one of these I'd have taken it straight away.

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Go for the w995 as it is the same phone but better!

I got a Sony Ericsson from T-Mobile as a replacement for my 5th g1 and i refused another g1 and asked for this instead.The retail package came with an 8gb memory card and a memory card > USB adapter which is very handy!

the phone is a basic slider feature phone which lacks any sort of smartphone OS but this does not mean it is not feature packed, quite the contrary.

the camera is the main selling point of the phone with a xenon flash and a high quality Cybershot sensor. The camera itself has a plethora of options such as smile detection and face detection which can be quite useful. The stills taken are probably the best i have ever seen on a mobile phone, good enough for me to replace my digital camera and better than other 8mp camera phones i have used. The video capture is very good but the audio sounds a little crackly compared to the fantastic video quality, good enough for the occasional video.

the keypad is quite good but the slider seems to wobble a little when closed which makes me question the build quality, especially reading other reviews saying they had problems with microphone and the keypad breaking, which were problems i never experienced but they are well documented over the net.

the shortcut keys on either side of the d-pad are a little cramped but not too bad and certainly usable. the d-pad itself has a nice feel with a satisfactory click in all directions however it suffers from the same problems as the n86 in that an optical pad would have worked better and made surfing the web alot more enjoyable.

the browser itself isn't bad but navigating is a pain but over wifi you can check facebook and emails with ease, infact even though it is not a smartphone you can still install java apps which there are plenty of on the net.

the music player is very good but the phone lacks a 3.5 mm headphone port so you have to use sony's own bundled headphones, which are still quite good but i would like the option of using my own.

Sony released the w995 which is the same phone essentially with a 3.5mm jack and a 2.6" screen so that may be the better option.

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I was informed this phone has common faults which cause it to break. do not buy

I had the Sony Ericsson for around 5 months when it broke for the first time. I sent it back to O2 and it was returned fixed. The problem with it this time was that the speakers had failed. I couldn't call anyone as they couldn't hear me.

About 3 months later the phone did the same thing. Again it was sent back to O2. This time a brand new C905 was sent to me.

The phone was fine, for around three months. Then I was out at the cinema with my son and my screen suddenly went black. I tried to switch the phone off and on again. When it came back on it said my SIM card was no longer valid. I phoned O2. Apparently this was now a software issue with the phone and I would need to try and back up all my data on my phone and then do a system restore. To say I was furious at this point was an understatement and in the end I told O2 I was not putting up with it and wanted my contract changing and a new phone.

It is a real shame as to look at the C905 it was a gorgeous slide phone. Sleek, black, sexy design and the buttons were easy to use. The calls were clear and it was very easy to answer a call by sliding the phone up.

The camera on the phone was fantastic and I often used that instead of my actual camera on nights out and got some brilliant camera quality shots.

You could also have songs on there, which you could use as ringtones and text tones.

Unfortunately that is all I have to say which is positive about the C905. I was so disappointed with it with all that went wrong and was told my O2 that it was actually a known fault with the handset and they were receiving lots of complaints about it. I did persevere with Sony Ericsson and have now got the W995.